Dan Bern

Certain Songs #266: Dan Bern – “God Said No”

July 30, 2015 by Jim Connelly

Album: New American Language
Year: 2001

In a weird way, “God Said No” just might be the ultimate Dan Bern song. For a guy who (tongue-in-cheek) sang “I am The Messiah” on the first song on he debut album, writing a whole song about a conversation where he basically asks God to let him alter history isn’t out of the pale.

That said, “God Said No” shows unusual pathos about human weaknesses and God’s understanding as such. The result is a lyric that resonates regardless of your personal belief system. After all, he could be making the exact same requests of The Doctor.

Certain Songs #265: Dan Bern – “Simple”

July 29, 2015 by Jim Connelly

Album: Smartie Mine
Year: 1999

Dan Bern’s most ambitious move to date was 1999’s two-CD Smartie Mine, a rock-solid collection of folk-punk tunes that also allowed him to stretch out with remakes and covers and craft great songs on subjects like Pete Rose, Marilyn Manson, Vincent Van Gogh, Tiger Woods and his own feelings about being a “New Dylan.”

Two discs meant that he also could stretch the song lengths, with songs establishing a riff and riding it for several minutes, like the two songs that end the first-disc, the piano-driven “Ballerina” and slide-guitar-filled “Simple.”

Certain Songs #264: Dan Bern – “Marilyn”

July 28, 2015 by Jim Connelly

Album: Dan Bern
Year: 1997

They don’t really make “New Dylans” any more, do they? That was a big thing for a very long time: the singer-songwriter who was going to somehow takeover the mythical place in the cosmos previously occupied by Bob Dylan.

However, after a half-century of getting their asses kicked by the old Dylan, that concept has pretty much fallen by the wayside.

There were a lot of singer-songwriters who got the “New Dylan” hype were pretty awesome. For example, Bruce Springsteen, who you might have heard of. Or Dan Bern, who had the temerity to actually sound like Dylan.

22 Musical Moments To Die For

November 14, 2008 by Jim Connelly

You can talk about genres, artists, albums, or even songs, but sometimes what keeps us coming back to music is the discovery of the transcendent musical moment. For me, “the moment” is the part of the song that fully and utterly engages me; the reason that I keep coming back to it.

I’m not necessarily talking about hooks here, because the purpose of a hook is the draw you into a song. I’m really talking more about traps: the part of a song that that keeps you there.

The is the fourth in a series. The first one had 25, the second one has 24, the third one had 23.

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Every single moment I’ve listed below kills me single every time I hear it.

Oh, and this isn’t in any kind of order, despite the numbering.